Community projects undertaken by the KWS

KWS assists communities in wildlife dispersal areas to address education infrastructure shortfalls. This entails construction of classrooms, dormitories and administration blocks. The goal is to inculcate conservation knowledge to young children so that they can be future grassroots conservation ambassadors and influence attitude change towards wildlife and natural resources management. Direct investment in community education through provision of school bursaries is also done but only in Amboseli and Tsavo National parks.

Water is one of the environmental resource that brings human-beings and wildlife into conflict, in recognition of these overriding and potential threat to human-life and livestock, KWS assists in drilling boreholes, excavation of earth dams and piping water to safe areas for Human use. Emphasis is given to key ecosystems with abundant wildlife and especially in dry season dispersal areas. KWS recognizes that water is an essential resources that influence the livelihoods of communities and their general views about wildlife. In several isolated situations, KWS trucks water to vulnerable communities and their livestock.

KWS operates in almost all parts of the country. With such large spatial presence, our staff are sometimes operating in places where there are no established health facilities for communities this calls for interventions to ensure that their health is sufficiently taken care of. Towards this end, KWS assists communities in building dispensaries and equipping them with the right medication. In consultation with the relevant ministry, the service is instrumental in influencing the posting of medical personnel. KWS recognizes the fact that an healthy community is one of the factors that can influence effective conservation of biological resources and thus is one of the focal areas of our intervention.

Human wildlife conflict is an emerging challenge to conservation efforts. It’s the goal and aspirations of KWS to safeguard communities from the vagaries of problematic animals and thus ensure safety. The service therefore through the support of the Central government constructs wildlife barriers in conflict hot-spots so as to minimize crop and property damage by wildlife. Two main types of barriers are preferred and they entail solar powered electric fences and or Moats. Solar Electric fences are however more preferred compared to moats as they are more effective in controlling problematic animals. KWS encourages and assists communities in designing, construction and maintenance of Solar-powered electric fences to minimize crop destruction and safeguard human-life from wildlife.

This category entails all those projects that are not within the above four thematic areas of focus. They are need driven interventions that arise from time to time. They include emergency evacuations, drought relief support and contributing to charity organization that support communities.